LEGO DC Super Villains PS4 Review

LEGO DC Super Villains is an action adventure platformer available from retail stores and for download from PlayStation Store for PS4. DC Comics originated under the name National Allied Publications in autumn 1934; founded by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson in which their debut came in the form of New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine issue 1 in February 1935, although their most iconic character Batman would not be introduced until issue 27 of Detective Comics in May 1939 having been created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. Fans of DC Universe comic books, TV series and films have had more than their fair quantity of enjoyment from exceptional videogames over the years including Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Injustice fighting series, Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham franchise, Telltale’s two Batman seasons and TT Games’ LEGO Batman trilogy. Can TT Games set the standard for DC Universe gaming with LEGO DC Super Villains?

Rather uniquely, LEGO DC Super Villains’ story focuses on the villain’s perspective on everything that takes place as a group of superheroes named the Justice Syndicate with alternative names such as Kent Clarkson from another universe do battle against the super villains of the DC universe.

Story mode spans 20 chapters of adventure and puzzles with classic LEGO gameplay such as deconstructing objects and constructing an object to help your duo or group of characters solve the puzzle to reach the next area of the level or hub.

Free play mode allows the player to revisit each completed level in any order in an attempt to utilise the skills of each unlocked character by switching to characters that cannot be used during the first playthrough of the story chapters, therefore attempting to find which character’s abilities paves the way for progression beyond a difficult puzzle and finding out what is hidden beyond an alternative route such as a gold brick or a minikit newspaper cover.

There are lots of additional activities beyond completing the 20 story chapters comprising of 15 challenges such as destroying Harvey Dent’s election posters, silencing the 10 sets of chattering teeth located in Amusement Mile, playing 11 mini-games situated throughout Earth and Apokolips and much more, checkpoint time trials available in hub areas and free play mode, achieving True Villain status, collecting 100 minikits with 5 minikits to be found per story chapter and 200 gold bricks. Meanwhile, there are 20 red bricks that can be unlocked including x2, x4, x6, x8 and x10 LEGO stud multipliers, stud magnet, pick up detectors, demolition mode, helium mode, party hat mode, big head mode, pew pew mode, super slap, combat confetti, DC captions and more besides.

Character design is excellent as it reflects that of not only what you would anticipate from a LEGO game, but also DC cinematic films and television series as there are 196 unlockable playable characters which can be unlocked as you play and purchased using LEGO studs that are collected throughout the game. Characters can use their unique abilities to unlock different areas of levels such as Lex Luthor manipulating panel puzzles to solve them, The Joker can create chattering teeth capable of entering small vents, The Joker and Harley Quinn spray graffiti on walls to destroy them in order to move past the wall, The Riddler hypnotising his enemies into opening a door or pulling a lever, Clay Face shapeshifting into another character to appear as a trustworthy character in order to progress past certain otherwise out of reach areas or even changing his height from very tall to small to fit into narrow vents and many more characters besides.

The player is given the opportunity to utilise the character creator immediately after James Gordon has began introducing the story in a conversation with Lex Luthor. Character creator effectively allows the player to customise every facet of their appearance, personality, abilities, weapons and basic information. Character creator comprises of an appearance category including head, neck, attachments, hair, arms, helmets, hands, body, hips, legs, capes and effects; personality such as health, voice, speed, target and animation; abilities such as grapple, action, technology and much more besides; weapons including swords, shields, staves, guns, bows, hammers, axes and claws; and basic information such as character name, affiliation and status. Meanwhile, there are many unlockable character customisation components, alongside an option to entirely randomise a character.

LEGO DC Super Villains’ environment design is faithful to the subject matter as it includes environments from popular DC Universe locations such as Gotham City, Metropolis, S.T.A.R. Labs, Smallville, Gorilla City and much more besides.

LEGO DC Super Villains introduces a sensational photo mode that allows the player to take fun selfie style pictures of any character you are controlling in front of any landmark or with any other character from the same gameplay session within the same frame, alongside the ability to flip the camera, zoom in or out and to choose from 7 filters including comic book stylised dots and an artistic black and white comic book drawing. LEGO DC Super Villains’ photo mode is an excellent design choice as it provides players with the opportunity of producing customisable action shots in immersive open-world environments on a giant scale which works in perfect harmony between the humour of LEGO videogames and the PS4’s share feature.

LEGO and DC are such a natural blend as the trademark LEGO humour does not need to be forced upon the subject matter as the DC cinematic universe of films and television handle humour just as well as the more serious scenes. Therefore, it should be no surprise that humour has a place in the script, especially when The Joker and Harley Quinn’s dialogue is involved as their chemistry really shines through. Every character has their fair share of one-liners and passages of dialogue as well as fun animations that provides even more personality such as Reverse Flash pulling a picture of Barry Allen’s The Flash out of his pocket before stamping on it repeatedly.

A season pass is available for purchase digitally for £11.99 or $14.99 including 6 new playable levels and 4 character packs inspired by films and TV series from the DC universe. The downloadable content comprises of character packs for DC Super Villains TV series, DC Super Heroes TV series, Justice League Dark and DC films, alongside level packs for Aquaman, Shazam, Batman: The Animated Series and Young Justice.

LEGO DC Super Villains will not be ported to Vita; however LEGO DC fans looking for a Vita native portable experience set in the world of LEGO DC can find exactly what they are looking for in LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes and LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham which are both available at retail or via download, while remote play is also a consolation for gamers looking for a portable version of LEGO DC Super Villains. LEGO DC Super Villains’ remote play performance is excellent as it produces the quality of graphics, audio and general performance from the PS4 version. As with previous LEGO games; split-screen multiplayer is displayed in split-screen during remote play, although it would have been much better to have the player using remote play to have their own full Vita screen with the other player having a full television screen. Controls have not been appropriately optimised as strafing or rolling to the left or right is mapped to the top left and top right of the rear touch pad and viewing the help screen is mapped to the bottom left of the rear touch pad. However, it does not detract from a comfortable and enjoyable remote play experience.

The controls are well mapped to the DualShock 4 controller with the control scheme consisting of pressing X to jump; pressing O to interact with an object or to perform a special ability, build, use or activate; pressing triangle to switch from controlling one character to a nearby character or holding triangle to transform into the alter-ego of a character such as Clay Face shapeshifting into another character or adjusting his size; pressing square to perform an attack or holding square to aim; pressing L1 to enter photo mode; pressing R1 to centre the camera; pressing L2 or R2 to strafe or roll to the left or right respectively; pressing L3 to view the help screen; changing the direction of the left analogue stick or alternatively pressing up, down, left or right on the d-pad to move your selected character; changing the direction of the right analogue stick to move the camera; pressing the share button takes you to the share feature menu; and pressing the options button to display the pause menu. Tapping the touch pad displays a map of the current hub area or level, while the DualShock 4 controller vibrates when Malcolm Merlyn uses his archery skills or Captain Cold’s cold gun, alongside light bar support producing light purple in a tone that is reminiscent to that of The Joker’s suit.

Graphically, LEGO DC Super Villains possesses excellent models and animations of everything within the large-scale environments as well as character models having a charming appeal to them; not only as they are all constructed entirely from LEGO but also as they are incredibly faithful recreations of characters and the grand scale of environments that would be anticipated from the DC cinematic universe, alongside some wonderful graphical effects that reflect the abilities of super villains such as Reverse Flash’s electricity circling around his body, Captain Cold’s and Killer Frost’s ice capabilities and much more besides.

LEGO DC Super Villains’ presentation is solid with a great user interface across various menus such as the main menu, options menu, additional content, extras menu and gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the right analogue stick and touch pad. Menu backgrounds set the scene for the subject matter of the story and characters through a gradual montage of super villains including The Joker, Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, Lex Luthor, Reverse-Flash, Poison Ivy, Killer Frost and more besides.

LEGO DC Super Villains’ voice-over cast is simply astonishing including Mark Hamill reprising his roles as The Joker from the Batman Arkham franchise and Trickster from The Flash TV series, while Tara Strong reprises her roles as Harley Quinn, Batgirl and Raven. Elsewhere, Kevin Conroy reprises his role as Batman from the Batman Arkham franchise; John Barrowman reprises his role as Malcolm Merlyn from Arrow and The Flash TV series; Michael Rosenbaum who portrayed Lex Luthor in the Smallville TV series voicing Barry Allen’s The Flash; Michael Ironside reprising his role as Darkseid from Superman and Justice League Unlimited TV series; and Gina Torres voices Superwoman as she reprises her role from the animated film Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. The cast also features JB Blanc reprising his role as Bane from Telltale’s Batman: The Enemy Within and the Batman Arkham franchise in addition to voicing The Penguin, Ra’s Al Ghul and Solovar; Jason Spisak reprises his role as Wally West from Young Justice; Nolan North voices Ultraman, Kent Clarkson and Bizarro; Laura Bailey voices Atomica and Terra; Matthew Mercer reprises his role as Deadshot from Injustice 2 and Nightwing; and Robin Atkin Downes voices Alfred Pennyworth and Gentleman Ghost, alongside numerous other voice-over artists that are all exceptionally talented and each bring personality to their respective characters.

Sound effects include a variety of characters walking, running, jumping, flying, climbing, throwing, punching, firing weapons, using their unique abilities, driving vehicles, building and collecting LEGO studs. LEGO DC Super Villains’ main soundtrack theme is Wolfmother’s Joker and the Thief, while Ian Livingstone, Rob Westwood and Simon Withenshaw return as instrumental music composers with another instrumental soundtrack worthy of DC films and TV series. Ian Livingstone returns having composed soundtracks for LEGO games such as LEGO The Incredibles, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2, LEGO Marvel’s Avengers, LEGO Dimensions and LEGO The Hobbit, alongside Codemasters’ F1 and Grid series, Total War and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds. Further music collaborators include Rob Westwood (LEGO Batman 2, The LEGO Movie Videogame, LEGO The Hobbit, LEGO Jurassic World, LEGO Marvel’s Avengers and LEGO The Incredibles) and Simon Withenshaw (LEGO City Undercover, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 and LEGO The Incredibles). There is no DualShock 4 speaker implementation that could have produced particular sound effects such as unlocking a new character or minikit newspaper cover.

The trophy list includes 46 trophies with 32 bronze trophies, 10 silver trophies, 3 gold trophies and 1 platinum trophy. Just under half of the trophies can be earned naturally during the first playthrough as there are 21 story based trophies including a total of 20 bronze trophies and 1 gold trophy for completing each story level. There are trophies which require for particular characters to be used within a gameplay session such as the A Court of Owls bronze trophy for having Owlman and Talon together in a party; the Trick or Treat bronze trophy for having The Riddler and Two-Face together in a party inside the Batcave; the Egg On Your Face bronze trophy for taking a selfie with Chang Tzu as any character whilst having both in the same party; and The Enemy Within bronze trophy for taking a selfie with Batman whilst playing as The Joker. Easier trophies include the That Top Hat With Those Trousers? bronze trophy for changing your custom character’s body piece 5 times; the When They’re In A Cutscene for creating your own custom character; and the Most Wanted bronze trophy for achieving the highest wanted level in the hub. Harder trophies include the Do You Like Gold Bricks, Batman? silver trophy for collecting all gold bricks; the All Together Now silver trophy for collecting all characters; the Helping Hand silver trophy for completing all quests in the hub; and the A Little Bit Extra gold trophy for achieving 100% completion. It is estimated that depending upon skill and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take between 25 to 35 hours to platinum the trophy list.

There are two difficulty levels including rookie villain that is particularly for players that are new to LEGO games with extra hints and tips provided, while master villain is for players that are already familiar with LEGO games to play using normal settings associated with previous LEGO games. However, the actual difficulty curve is not any different from previous LEGO games which is a positive given the appeal of LEGO to a wide audience and age range from young children to adults; characters will immediately respawn after dying in combat and there are some puzzles that require changing to another character in order to progress to certain areas or in general. These gameplay elements result in the difficulty curve for the story missions, side quests and challenges being only as hard as the player would find the puzzles, exploration and combat in every other LEGO videogame. There are some tricky puzzles in LEGO DC Super Villains; therefore it is not necessarily going to be easy to progress through every level, while achieving 100% completion is hard given the scale of the environments that need to be explored to find newspaper cover minikits, gold bricks and much more besides.

Split-screen multiplayer allows a second player to join in at any given moment via drop-in/drop-out multiplayer and play co-operatively, while each of the levels see both players working together within the same environment to figure out puzzles and overcome obstacles. Co-operative multiplayer is presented in vertical split-screen which works exceptionally well; allowing players to usually explore two completely separate areas of the same level or hub area without restriction to their location, movements or actions, unless there is a requirement to be within a certain area before progressing on with the story.

However, rather surprisingly, LEGO DC Super Villains does not feature a dedicated competitive multiplayer mode even though LEGO Ninjago: The Movie Videogame and LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 have previously featured multiple competitive gameplay modes. For instance, the allied force of super villains such as The Joker and Harley Quinn could take on enemies such as Batman and Wonder Woman in a 2 vs. 2 battle or 1 vs. 1 with each player able to switch between their predetermined characters as each player or team attempts to defend an objective whilst the opposing player or team simultaneously attempts to overthrow their defence of the objective.

LEGO DC Super Villains’ replayability includes replaying levels to collect red bricks, gold bricks, newspaper cover minikits and more besides which you may have been unable to do so during the first playthrough without having access to a certain character’s unique ability. Revisiting levels in free play mode as different characters you have unlocked with unique abilities in an attempt to find which character can solve a puzzle leading to further areas within environments, while there are quite a few side quests and challenges to complete. There is a natural satisfaction of creating your own characters and collecting LEGO studs as well as deconstructing particular objects and constructing an item that is of use to reach the next area of the story mission. Split-screen co-operative multiplayer is always fun to play with a friend, especially as both players are able to independently explore such vast environments, while taking selfies of your chosen super villains in photo mode is also as hilarious as the witty dialogue. LEGO DC Super Villains represents exceptional value as it collectively contains more than enough replay value throughout every feature to keep players returning for many story mode playthroughs or continuous exploration as any of the 196 unlockable characters and your very own customised super villains.

Analysis